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Monday, August 26, 2013

I Survived a Day of FUN Without Cheating

Family time is very important to me. I have a pretty big extended family. I have A LOT of cousins; 1st cousins, 2nd cousins, etc. Heck, it seems like everyone is an aunt, uncle or a cousin. But I love it.

My weekends are usually full of chores, meal prepping, and doing homework with my son. But I try to include some fun.

What's the purpose of life if you're not enjoying yourself?

If I do have plans to have some fun, all of chores are compressed into a single day. This past weekend, my fun day was on Sunday. Breakfast and then a birthday party.

I know right?

This can't turn out good.

Knowing that I might "cheat" on my diet, or consume a larger amount of calories than normal, I scheduled my early weekend run on Sunday. I hit the weights the night before, working my upper body (arms and shoulders). Got a good night's sleep and went for a 2 mile run at 6am.

By 8:40am I was parking in front of Chop Bar in Oakland. They don't open until 9am, so my son and I decided to go for a walk and explore. Doing that is much more appealing than just sitting in the car and waiting. Plus, I got to take a view awesome shots of the architecture.

Knowing that we were going to come here for breakfast, I checked out the restaurant on yelp. Yes, I use yelp often. I found a brunch menu in their photo section and had an idea of what I was going to order. In order to stay on track with your health and weight loss goals, this is a really good way to assist you.

I ended up ordering the pork belly with cheese and onion frittata. It sounded delish and it looked good too.

Instead of the fries I asked for fruit. I had about 3 blueberries. My son and grandma ate the rest of my fruit. The bread looked good, but I easily avoided it and offered it to someone else. And I had 1.5 cups of coffee with a splash of milk.

I was full, but not completely stuffed and I enjoyed my meal. Not to mention the awesome conversations we were all having.

Afterwards, we all walked over to the Jack London Square. To get across the train tracks, there was an elevator and stairs at each end.

Can you guess which route I took?Yes, the stairs.We enjoyed the view and each others' company before parting, and then walked back to our vehicles. That get together was done and I don't feel guilty about my meal choice, and happy that I got to include even more physical activity in my day.

Now it was time for the birthday party...This is where most people fail.I feel like I started my day off on the right foot, so I continued to stay positive that I would continue to make healthy decisions for the remainder of the day. It was a child's birthday party at a park. They BBQ'd which was a total score for me.

I had a garlic sausage with some mustard, 2 bowls of chili, a water and a small cup of coffee with half and half. I really didn't sit much, I stood the whole time while conversing with relatives and other guests.

My son got to play with his cousin, so they were running around like crazy, which is awesome. Instead of a birthday cake, my cousin made some appetizing cupcakes. Aren't they cute?

I was quite satisfied with all I had just consumed that I really didn't feel a need to cheat with a cupcake. And surprisingly, my son didn't want one either. He opted for watermelon, and then some marshmallows. I am pretty strict with his diet, and he was burning a crazy amount of calories by running around....I let him have the sugar.

So that was my family fun filled day of eating out.Just goes to show you that even though you go out, you can still plan it in a way where you don't drift from your diet. If you think about it, there are things you can do to help you stay on track.

How are you when it comes to family gatherings?Do you find it difficult to stay on track?What tips or tricks do you use?